Collection context
Summary
- Abstract:
- The Glide family collection documents the family, their California businesses, and related families. The Glide family is known for cattle and sheep ranching, land ownings, and philanthropic contributions in the Bay and Sacramento areas. Materials date from 1792 to 2003, and include ledgers, diaries, legal documents, personal and business correspondence, photographs, scrapbooks, business records, ephemera, and military service papers, including letters from Burnett Miller to his relatives during World War II. Miller, former Sacramento Mayor and councilmember, was married to Mimi Glide Miller, great granddaughter of J. H. Glide and Elizabeth "Lizzie" Glide.
- Extent:
- 4.8 Linear Feet (3 boxes, 1 legal manuscript box, 1 oversized box, 1 oversized folder)
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item and/or item number], [box and folder number], Glide Family collection, MS0194, Center for Sacramento History
Background
- Scope and content:
-
This collection is divided into five series specific to each family. Material dates from 1792 to 2003, with the bulk being from 1900 to 1969, and consists primarily of business records relating to the Glide family ranch in Yolo County and management of the family's massive property holdings throughout California, including Sacramento, Solano, Yolo, Glenn, Tulare, and Kern counties; family correspondence regarding family affairs and business; legal papers; photographs; and military records. The collection also includes material originating from two families related by marriage to the Glides: the Ownbys and the Millers. This material consists of photographs; correspondence; two scrapbooks; and one 1883 pioneer diary. Of note are letters written by Burnett Miller while stationed in Europe during World War II, with some letters addressing his observations while liberating and relocating prisoners from the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria.
- Biographical / historical:
-
The Glide family is known in Sacramento, and surrounding areas, as the owners of the T. H. Glide Ranch in Davis in Yolo County and other prominent land holdings across the state. Joseph Henry "J. H." Glide, born August 15, 1835, immigrated to America from England in 1852. After spending some time in Philadelphia, Glide established a sheep and cattle ranching business in Solano County around 1855. The ranch specialized in pure-bred Shorthorn cattle and French Merino sheep. In pursuit of additional grazing land, Glide eventually expanded land holdings to include ranches in Sacramento, Solano, Glenn, Tulare, and Kern Counties. Glide married Elizabeth Helen "Lizzie" Snider and they had five children: Joseph "Henry," Elizabeth, Mary, Thornton, and Eula. J. H. Glide had a mansion built for himself and his wife around 1880 at 9th and H streets in Sacramento, where Sacramento City Hall is now located at 915 I Street. After J. H. Glide's death in 1906, Thornton and his mother, Lizzie, were the primary managers of family business ventures. By 1913, the Glide family owned homes in Sacramento and the Bay Area, and tens of thousands of acres of land in Solano County, Yolo County, and other counties.
Henry and Thornton ran a ranching business known as the Glide Brothers for a brief time. Throughout operation, the family business affairs were legally entangled with Pacific Gas and Electric, Sacramento Northern Railroad, the Bureau of Reclamation (in regards to Yolo Bypass), and other entities. During the early twentieth century, the family members sued each other in numerous instances regarding land and inheritance disputes. The most notable of these took place after the death of J. H. Glide in 1906. The Glide children sued their mother, Lizzie, accusing her of taking advantage of their father in his final years and manipulating him to change his will to nearly exclude the children and financially favor herself. While the case was eventually settled, there is documentation in Sacramento city records of further litigious action between Lizzie and some of her children, primarily Henry and Thornton.
Oil was discovered on Glide family land in Kern County sometime between circa 1920 and 1930, which significantly increased the family's net worth. Lizzie moved from the Glide mansion in Sacramento to Berkeley in 1917 to be closer to her college-aged daughters. According to letters in this collection, Lizzie continued to manage livestock shows and sales, as well as agricultural and oil interests until her death on May 26, 1941. Lizzie, considered a savvy business woman, was also a prolific philanthropist, donating to and establishing many Northern California charities. She established the Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco in 1930. Glide family members settled in various homes in Sacramento, the Bay Area, and their multiple ranches. Lizzie commissioned famed architect Julia Morgan to design a mansion in 1918 for her daughter Mary and husband, C. M. Goethe, at 3731 T Street in Sacramento. Henry and Saidee Glide resided at 4110 Folsom Boulevard in Sacramento for many years. Other family members owned homes throughout East Sacramento. Lizzie also commissioned Morgan to design Sacramento's Public Market, once located at 13th and J streets.
Thornton assumed the role of family patriarch and ranch manager spending much of his time dealing with livestock matters. Thornton married Margarette Sinclair in 1908 and they had two children, Peggy and Thornton Jr. Margarette's sister, Sadiee Sinclair, married Henry and they had four children: Joseph Henry Glide III, Sallie, Thornton Elsen, and Marion. Elizabeth Glide married Seldon Williams and Mary Glide married well-known eugenicist, Goethe. Eula Glide married Roy Holliday Elliot and had three children: John, Elizabeth, and Thornton.
Thornton Sr.'s children, Peggy, Thornton Jr., and his wife Katrina (Dangberg), managed the T. S. Glide ranch in Davis and other land holdings after the death of Thornton Sr. on April 4, 1955. Margarette Sinclair Glide died on December 20, 1959. By putting much of the family's Yolo County land in a charitable trust, the Glides ensured the preservation of large swaths of wetlands, now known as the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, which includes the Vic Fazio Yolo Wildlife Area and small, designated hunting grounds. Henry and Sadiee Glide's daughter, Sallie, married Talbot Parker Kendall and they had one child, Talbot Jr.
J. H. Glide III married Mary Ownby in 1927 and they had two children, Mary "Mimi" Elizabeth and Joseph Henry IV. The Ownby family hailed from Gridley in Butte County. Mimi Glide married Henry Pashco in 1952 and they had three children: George, Mary, and James. Pashco served in World War II and the Korean Conflict and died in a plane crash in 1959 at the age of 40. In 1965, Mimi married future Sacramento mayor and city councilmember Burnett Miller. Miller, also a widower, brought three children of his own to the marriage: Fitzgerald, Burnett Jr., and Simone. The Millers adopted each other's biological children and had two children together: Powell and Margot. They made their home at 1224 40th Street in Sacramento and also had a home in Olympic Valley, Placer County.
Miller served in the army during World War II, earning a bronze star and purple heart. His division helped liberate the Mauthausen Nazi concentration camp in Austria in 1945. Miller was on the Sacramento City Council from 1971 to 1977 and served as interim mayor in 1982. He worked at the family business, Burnett and Sons Lumber Company, in Sacramento, and he and his wife, Mimi, traveled, collected art, and supported many local charitable endeavors in the arts and history. Burnett Miller died October 14, 2018, and Mimi Miller died June 12, 2023. Many Glide family members are buried at East Lawn Memorial Park in Sacramento.
- Acquisition information:
- Donated by Jim Miller in 2023 (accession #2024/018) and Mimi Miller in 1996 (accession #1997/003).
- Processing information:
-
Processing and finding aid by Emily Mizokami, 2024
- Arrangement:
-
The collection is arranged into 5 series:
- Series 1. Glide family business records
- Series 2. Glide family correspondence
- Series 3. Glide family papers and photographs
- Series 4. Miller family papers and photographs
- Series 5. Ownby family papers and photographs
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
The collection is open for research.
- Terms of access:
-
All requests to publish or quote from private manuscripts held by the Center for Sacramento History (CSH) must be submitted in writing to csh@cityofsacramento.org. Permission for publication is given on behalf of CSH as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the patron. No permission is necessary to publish or quote from public records.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item and/or item number], [box and folder number], Glide Family collection, MS0194, Center for Sacramento History
- Location of this collection:
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551 Sequoia Pacific Blvd.Sacramento, CA 95811, US
- Contact:
- (916) 808-7072